Larry Berger

“Laughing” Larry Berger has been a working poet since 1999 . His books include: Instant poetry (Just Add Words!), Chocolate box, Working Title, and the CD Dragon’s Dance volume one. He sponsored the Skysaje Enterprises poetry contest and has been published in the following: Of the People (Tiger Lilly Press), The Onyx anthology (Projector Press), Le Mote Juste (Just poets 2009), Everyday Poets.com, Next… Magazine, Pinnacle Hill Review
and his blog, Poetic Conversations http://poeticconversations.blogspot.com
 

 

 

 

"Instant Poetry (Just Add Words!) is a smart, witty and well-thought out poetry collection arranging in topics such as love, laughing, and every day issues!"


 

PageOneLit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?

Larry Berger: I grew up In Rochester, NY but I didn't really "grow up" till i moved to Los Angles, CA when I was 18 to study to be a chef.   As a child I was told I had dyslexia so I was constantly working with tutors to improve my writing . I wasn't till I had given up that my writing improved . turns out I was fine. I just thought I was damaged goods so I acted that way.

I didn't start writing poetry till 1996 . My earliest influences where "The children of the beats" the Los Angles poets who had been trained by folks like Jack Micheline and other San Franciscans.  They included Poetry Impresario James Maverick, Rafael FJ Alvarado, ST. Teresa Stone, Kennon B Rains, "Mister Electricity" Jim Bolt and others on the LA Open Mic Circuit. 

 

 

PageOneLit.com:  Your new book is Instant Poetry (Just Add Words!) - You have said "I originally wrote it to coincide with a self-help guide that I was taking on tour." Explain.

Larry Berger: This is the THIRD edition of Instant Poetry (Just Add Words!) back in 1999 I had written a self help guide called " The Green Lantern: a guide for achieving the American Dream." I decided to do what became known as " Laughing" Larry's Ha ha Date tour to promote it . Mainly it was to be a tour of coffee house readings in California, Colorado, Nevada and Texas so I needed a poetry book to go with it. I wrote the first edition and it sold 250 copies . I did a second printing after I got back and it sold 1,000. I put out a second edition and it sold 1,000 copies at reading too. now Its available world wide. I've lost the master for the self help guide though.  

 

 

PageOneLit.com:  What should a reader expect from reading Instant Poetry (Just Add Words!)?

Larry Berger: This book was written using my APF technique ( audience Participation Freestyle or if you prefer Instant Poetry Just add words! hence the book title.) the way it works is that I'd go to a reading, ask for titles out of the audience, and build poems on then in thirty seconds or less. Every piece in the book was written that way so I guess you could say that the poems are slices of life interpreted through improve.  

 

 

PageOneLit.com: In Instant Poetry (Just Add Words!) you have said one of your favorite pieces is “Bubble gum” - Why?

Larry Berger: Over the last 17( God! has it really been that long!) years It's become my signature piece.

 

“Bubble gum”

Soft
and warm between my teeth
an old lover returns
sweet
yet tangy inside my mouth
as over and over
she dances
building ever more desire
Slowly she turns up the heat
stoking the fires
until
her passions no longer confinable
She EXPLODES
releasing the rapture of the moment
and then
she slides along my tongue for
one
more
Tango

 

 

PageOneLit.com: What do you hope to achieve with Instant Poetry (Just Add Words!)?

Larry Berger:  Total domination of the World Wide Poetry Market! I've been called the"Omnipresent" Laughing Larry and I want my work to be everywhere! 

 

 

PageOneLit.com: You worked as a marketing director for The Writer’s Exchange Literary Agency In Los Angeles, CA  -- Explain how that experience helped you as a published writer? 

Larry Berger: Well, I have a Sales and marketing back round going back 30 years before I became a poet. this gave me an insite into the publishing world from an agents perspective. I'd see the piles of manuscripts on their desks and thank God I was a Salesmen. I never dreamed that one day I'd be IN one of those piles.

 

PageOneLit.com: What was the last book you read?

Larry Berger:  Cover to Cover? I can't Say Instant Poetry( Just Add Words!)  right? Okay then , It would have to be the Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. It took me three weeks to read it but it was worth the effort.

 

PageOneLit.com: What's next?

Larry Berger: I'm in negotiations now on a follow up manuscript called " Entitlement" .

 I’m also working on a movie script based on one of my poems called “The Adventures of Parrot Man” and my blog at http://poeticconversations.blogspot.com